The Michigan Wolverines welcome Tom Izzo and the Michigan State Spartans to the Chrysler Center this Friday, and college basketball is just better, when these two teams are better.

Before any bias is picked up in this blog, it should be noted that I’m an MSU fan. Born and raised, graduated from, and bleed green and white. But, with that being said, even I can admit that college basketball, as a product, is so much better when both Michigan and Michigan State are good. 

For years, the matchup between these two programs were battles. Michigan actually leads the series 97-90 and didn’t get real good until the 2010’s, but you can think back to some insane grudge matches. Mitch McGary vs Adreian Payne. Jordan Poole vs Jaren Jackson Jr. I mean, just look at these two starting lineups – 

1. Trey Burke                                vs.                          Keith Appling
2. Tim Hardaway Jr.                                                  Gary Harris
3. Nik Stauskas                                                           Denzel Valentine
4. Glenn Robinson                                                     Branden Dawson
5. Mitch McGary                                                         Matt Costello

Those were absolute dogfights. High powered lineup against high powered lineup, with a Big Ten title often on the line late in the season. Now, obviously I’m a fan of Tom Izzo. Who can’t be a fan of one of the greatest college coaches of all-time. He’s in the Naismith Hall of Fame for fuckssake (is it fuckssake or fucksake? Who really knows.). Down the street at Michigan, however, I always had the utmost respect for Michigan’s basketball team and coaching staff. John Beilein ran a program very similar to Tom’s. Clean, hard-nosed, and recruited the right way, and he was a leader of men. You could tell him and Tom respected one another.

The Juwan Howard-era was a different case, however. I think most Michigan fans would agree that they, too, will look back at this time as terrible. The games between MSU and Michigan weren’t fun, nor did you feel the respect between the coaches. The loudest I’ve ever heard the Breslin was back in 2020 when Juwan was T’d up and Cassius Winston hit a three just after, eventually leading to a rout of Michigan. I swear to God the roof was seconds away from fucking caving in, but that doesn’t mean it was a good battle. 

Both MSU and Michigan have fallen into slight irrelevance over the last four to five years. State did continue to make the tournament (even if they did get bounced early each year), while Michigan made a few NIT appearances. There just wasn’t any juice on either-side, let alone against one another. That seems to have finally changed this year, though.

I’m a fan of Dusty May, even if he is leaving for Indiana next year. He has been great with much lesser programs in the past, and has this Wolverine team over-performing and firing on all cylinders. So let’s hope the trend of old reemerges, Izzo and Dusty develop a mutual respect for one another, and these two programs can battle it out for the Big Ten over the next 10 years. Cause I’m tired of taking on Purdue for the title. 

Tom Izzo said it best in his quote below. Let’s get back to that.

“Do I respect John Beilein? Tremendously. Do I respect Michigan? Tremendously. Do I like them? Not one bit. I don’t like anything about Michigan and they don’t like anything about us, and that’s the way it should be.”